In a demonstration of the fractious relationship between the US and China, the US department of justice indicted five members of China’s People’s Liberation Army, accusing them of stealing secrets from several American companies, including Westinghouse and the United States Steel Corporation. Beijing reacted with predictable anger, drawing attention to Washington’s own proven predilection for cyber espionage after the Edward Snowden revelations.
That the DoJ’s symbolic move — the likelihood of China turning over the alleged hackers is close to nil — has touched off a diplomatic storm signals both the Obama administration’s frustration with China’s consistent and frequent forays into American private and state networks and China’s indignation at what it considers to be hypocritical behaviour on the part of the US.
Cyberspace is increasingly emerging as a new front where tensions in the US-China bilateral relationship are playing out. China’s apprehensions about the US sabotaging its rise — which it insists is peaceful — by getting involved in its various territorial disputes, and the American commitment to underwriting its allies’ security from threats posed by an aggressive China suggest that such skirmishes are likely to only grow in number, and perhaps in intensity.
